1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for properly positioning the end-portion of an electric wire within a device for installing terminals or terminal fittings on electric wire.
2. Description of Background Information
Terminals or terminal fittings are generally installed on the ends of electric wires by automated or semi-automated equipment for doing so in mass production fashion. In such systems, it is necessary to ensure that the end portion of the wire upon which the terminal is to be installed is positioned within the device as accurately as possible, so that a terminal or terminal fitting may be installed properly on the end of the wire.
In general, terminal application devices for clamping terminal fittings on the end portion of a covered or insulated electric wire which is cut and treated with a stripping process include systems for processing electric wire by which the covered electric wire is measured and cut, and both ends of the covered electric wire so cut are continuously processed.
Such terminal application devices typically further include a device in which a pair of molds, for separately cutting terminal fittings from a continuous terminal belt and clamping them, co-operate as a unit, and are constituted so that the end portion of the covered electric wire supplied by a supply unit of electric wire installed at the above-mentioned device for processing electric wire is positioned and the terminal fittings are clamped with this system.
In such systems, the supply unit for electric wire, in the device for processing an electric wire, feeds the end portion of the covered electric wire between the above-mentioned pair of molds by swinging the end portion of the covered electric wire which is in a free state. Under such conditions, it is difficult to properly position the covered electric wire against these pair of molds and this often results in the inferior clamping or installation of terminals on such wires. Therefore, the present applicant has previously proposed a device for accurately positioning an electric wire (i.e., remedying an electric wire posture) enabling one to exactly position the end portion of a covered electric wire which is supplied by the supply unit for electric wire, between a pair of molds. In this connection, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,898, which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Further in this regard, FIG. 4 of the present application is a front schematic illustration of a device for remedying an electric wire posture adapted to a conventional terminal application device A.
As shown in FIG. 4, conventional terminal application device A is integrally equipped with a mold of a fixed side 1 and a mold of a mobile side 2 fixing terminal fittings (which are not shown in this Figure) on an end portion of a stripped wire W1 for a covered electric wire W. The terminal fittings are applied by mold 1 in cooperation with, a shank 3, integrally supporting the mold of mobile side 2, and a shank holder 4 positioning the mold of mobile side 2 at the mold of fixed side 1 by being integrally installed with the mold of fixed side 1 and by guiding the above-mentioned shank 3 in a state where relative change between the mold of fixed side 1 and mold of a mobile side 2 is possible.
In front of the mold of fixed side 1, a wire guide 5 which receives the neighboring part of the end portion of a stripped wire W1 for a covered electric wire W is installed, and the covered electric wire W is mounted on the above-mentioned wire guide 5 by swinging the covered electric wire W with a supply unit of an electric wire (which is not shown in the Figure), as shown by arrow B. The end portion of a stripped wire W1 is arranged to be supplied between the mold of fixed side 1 and the mold of mobile side 2.
Further, in the above conventional device for remedying an electric wire posture, a claw 6 is provided, for accurately positioning (i.e., remedying the posture of) a covered electric wire W on the shank holder 4 in a state in which the claw can rotate about a support axis 7. A rack gear 8 on shank 1, and a pinion gear 9 which meshes with the rack gear 8, cooperate to correct the posture (or positioning) of the covered electric wire W which was supplied by linking the up-down motion of a shank 3, by means of claw 6.
However, as pinion gear 9 and rack gear 8 have been used to link the shank 3 with the claw 6 in the conventional device for remedying an electric wire posture, it was necessary to provide a space for accommodating the rack gear 8 on the shank 3 of the terminal application device. Therefore, this system has a disadvantage in that more intensive manufacturing is required in order to provide a system including a shank 3 and shank holder 4 and including a rack gear 8, depending on the kinds of the terminal application devices employed. Additionally, in the case where a kind of device on which a cover plate for covering the shank 3 on the shank holder 4 is installed, the rack gear 8 may not be installed at all, because of the interference of the cover plate. Therefore, a further disadvantage is that when the claw 6 is linked with the up-down motion of the shank 3, the types of terminal application devices which can be suitably employed are greatly restricted.
Further, when the rack gear 8 and the pinion gear 9 are set, the rack gear 8 is fixed on the side part or the front of the set-plate 3A installed on the front of the shank 3. Therefore, claw 6 is separated from mold 1 by the dimension L in an axial direction of the support axis 7.
This relationship and spacing is also shown in schematic cross-section in FIG. 5. The assembly of FIG. 5 is also constructed and arranged to include a magnetic slip system, which is discussed in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,898, incorporated by reference above, and which is also expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for its disclosure of the magnetic slip assembly which may be employed in its system. In the present FIG. 5, the distance L of FIG. 4 is schematically illustrated by the distance L' of FIG. 5, which is the distance between surface 30 and claw 60.
In view of the foregoing, it has been difficult to set a position for inserting an electric wire by the claw 6 to a desired position. That is, in order to accurately remedy the posture of the covered electric wire W, it has been preferred to provide the claw 6 between the above-mentioned mold of the fixed side 1 and the wire guide 5 prior to the positioning of the covered electric wire W, but as the claw 6 is set forward by the dimension L to an axial direction of the rack gear 8 and the pinion gear 9, it has been difficult to locate claw 6 in between the mold 1 and the wire guide 5.
Therefore, it has been necessary to carry out a folding process where the claw 6 must swing to the axial direction of the support axis 7 in order to displace the claw 6 between the mold 1 and the wire guide 5. As a result, the disadvantage has existed that the installation cost of the claw 6 becomes not only high but also operation is difficult, because it is easy to interfere with surrounding members because of the need to move claw 6 in the axial direction.
Further, as the claw 6 is rotated with the rack gear 8 and the pinion gear 9, the claw 6 could not adequately open the supply pass of the covered electric wire W because of the restriction of the stroke and the number of gear teeth of the rack gear 8. Therefore, such systems posses the further disadvantage that a restriction occurs in the supply device for supplying the covered electric wire W to the terminal application device, and further the wide usability is lost.
In addition, rack gear 8 and pinion gear 9 are relatively expensive, and, therefore, production costs for systems employing them have been high.